Public / Research · Scale-up (stealth → public 2024) · Fremont, CA
Pacific Fusion
| Vacuum (at rest) | Pulsed-power vacuum: magnetically insulated transmission lines (MITLs) + a vacuum-insulator stack at the water–vacuum interface feed a meter-scale chamber. High vacuum (~1e-5 Torr) suffices; the regime is dominated by insulator flashover and electrode/cathode-plasma current loss, not gas throughput. Consumable target + pulse hardware per shot (~0.1 Hz/chamber) |
|---|---|
| Vacuum (operation) | Pulsed magnetic inertial fusion: fast, high-current pulses magnetically compress D-T fuel |
| Power | Modular "brick" pulsed-power architecture (capacitor + switch units); Sandia Z-Machine lineage |
| Voltage | Fast-rising high-current / high-voltage pulses (pulsed HV regime) |
| Product | High-gain pulsed magnetic fusion driver; Demonstration System targeting net facility gain by 2030 |
| Application | Commercial fusion energy |
| Customer | Private (energy market); milestone-gated venture financing |
Why it matters
Private fusion 30 minutes up the East Bay, built on pulsed power + vacuum + HV, the exact industrial-meets-frontier seam. The CTO is the former LLNL/NNSA Director of Inertial Confinement Fusion. ~140 people, no entrenched vacuum tradition.